Plymouth Arts Cinema has received an emergency grant of £45,000 from the Culture Recovery Fund to help it bounce back from the Covid pandemic and protect jobs.
The picture house, which moved from the now closed Plymouth Arts Centre to Plymouth College of Art in 2018, has now received more than £100,000 from the fund in addition to other grants from Plymouth City Council and the Government.
The 118-seater cinema is among 340 cultural organisations in England boosted by £35m from the third and final round of the Culture Recovery Fund.
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The emergency support package, which comes from the National Lottery’s coffers, is designed to help cultural organisations survive after the Covid-19 pandemic hit their finances.
Thanks to the £45,054 grant, Plymouth’s only independent cinema has been able to continue its programme of international and UK independent films and offer cheaper tickets to those out of employment, students, those attending autism-friendly “relaxed” screenings, and asylum seekers and refugees.
Anna Navas, director and film programmer at Plymouth Arts Cinema said: “We are very grateful to receive this support for Plymouth Arts Cinema. It will enable us to continue rebuilding our audience as we recover from the pandemic, and to develop new audiences by deepening our community engagement. We are committed to bringing world class independent cinema and film culture to Plymouth.”
Plymouth Arts Cinema, a charity, has been propped up with numerous grants during the Covid pandemic, which forced cinemas to close for large periods and also open with restrictions. The cinema received £61,610 from the Culture Recovery Fund, run by the British Film Institute (BFI), in 2020/21 and a further £4,797 in November 2021.
The cinema, which employs eight people, also received £30,464 in furlough payments under the Government’s Job Retention Scheme. This was bolstered by £13,934 from Plymouth City Council in Covid-realated grants during 2020/21.
It is also in receipt of a non-Covid related £105,000 from the BFI’s Audience Fund and £60,000 from a council Service Level Agreement (SLA). These payments, split over three years, run to the end of 2023.
Ben Roberts, chief executive of the BFI, said: “Every penny of the Culture Recovery Fund including over £500,000 in this final round of funding to independent cinemas across the country has been vital to their survival, enabling them to recover and welcome back their audiences. As well as bringing people together to experience the magic of experiencing film on the big screen, local cinemas are hubs for educational and film activities and provide thousands of jobs contributing to regeneration and local economies.”
Plymouth Arts Centre moved out of its Looe Street base in 2018 when it came under intense financial pressure as a result of Arts Council England withdrawing funding.
The cinema relocated and doubled in size at Plymouth College of Art, opening to the public on January 10, 2019. The arts centre board said it had decided to sell the Looe Street building because resources were not in place to continue to deliver both the cinema and the visual arts programme. The building has since been split up and the major part of the Grade II listed building was sold at auction in March 2022 for £295,000.
